The Rec Center #64
Hi folks! This week Elizabeth has put together a list of fix-it fics (a very necessary genre) from our reader recommendations. Plus, we have some important discourse on the topic of Wolverine’s penis, several articles about Mary Sues, and a truly delightful piece of Due South fanart. — Gav
new stuff
“Mary Sue” by Elizabeth at Fansplaining
After a (too-long) hiatus, Elizabeth has written a new piece! On Mary Sues, self-inserts, imagines, x reader stories, representation, misogyny in fandom, and SO. MUCH. MORE.
“Is Wolverine Circumcised?” by Emily Gaudette at Inverse
A deep dive into the topic of self-healing mutant dong.
“Hollywood Is Getting Outsized Credit For Seriously Small Moments Of LGBT Inclusivity” by Alison Wilmore at Buzzfeed
Not exactly fandomy but definitely of interest to our readers: on the blink-and-you-miss-it moments that are lauded as milestones for queer rep in blockbuster media.
older stuff
We’ve shared both these pieces in past issues, but since Elizabeth had the pleasure of revisiting them for her Mary Sue piece this week, we wanted to share them again for anyone who missed them the first time. Two pieces about reclaiming and finding representation in self-insert fic:
“On Tim Burton, Fanfiction, and Little Sisters” by Ash Davis at Bullshitist
“Because if white boys had dwarves and destinies, and white girls had princesses and prophecies. Why couldn’t I?”
“Full Body Reading” by Anna Wilson at Aeon
“Reading The Book of Margery Kempe alongside fanfiction makes it clear that physical, imaginative reading is still associated with women, still considered embarrassing, and still employed as a form of resistance to mainstream narratives.”
tumblr & beyond
A gorgeous Due South fanart poster by Rebecca Mock.
A tumblr account dedicated to signage in anime. (Surprisingly beautiful?)
Twitter user GwenefyND deduced the four pop-culture references from this early promo shot of Gillian Anderson as the god of Media in American Gods.
Some intensive analysis of why Legolas would have to have enormous anime eyes to support his long-distance vision in Lord of the Rings.
fanfiction
Fix-its! Are one of my favorite things in all of fanfiction. (They make up maybe 70% of the stories I have written ahahaha) (the danger of falling for canon where they keep killing your faves) We had quite a few stories in our submissions tagged “fix-it” or “everybody lives,” so some of these might be fixing sad but non-fatal endings while others might be bringing characters back to life. Thanks, as always, to our readers for submitting stories! — Elizabeth
“A Shot in the Dark” by Silver pup. 213K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: The Hobbit/Lord of the Ring; Ship: Bilbo/Thorin
Recced by: Aikawa_Akihiko
Backstory: Bilbo/Thorin is the go-to ship for The Hobbit fandom, featuring a wandering dwarf king and his company journeying across Middle Earth to reclaim their kingdom from a dragon, and a fussy hobbit looking for an adventure. The story also relies heavily on knowledge and characters from The Lord of the Ring trilogy.
Rec: This story completely sucks the reader in and will keep you reading long into the night. It's a redo/fix-it fic featuring BAMF!Bilbo who wakes up, after living long enough to see Frodo burdened with the fate of the One Ring, determined to save the lives of the Durins and prevent the war and loss to come.
Content warnings: N/A
“take two” by halfedheart (leitmotifs). 1.4K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: X-Men; Ship: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Recced by: Elizabeth M. (to clarify: NOT the co-editor of this newsletter :-))
Backstory: Charles and Erik, the X-Men's Beatrice and Benedick, but with powers and angst.
Rec: The Muppet Baby X-Men, led by Scott/Kermit, rewrite the the X-Men: Apocalypse script with an emphasis on Charles cleaning up after Erik falling off the “being a non-murdery mutant supremacist” wagon.
Content warnings: N/A
“Human Interest” by MadLori. 144K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Brokeback Mountain; Ship: Jack/Ennis
Reccd by: Karen
Backstory: This is the only fic I have ever read in this fandom, and the only one I need to.
Rec: Whenever a friend is like “god I just re-watched Brokeback Mtn why did I do that I'm in tears now and everything is terrible” I pull out this fic and gently send it their way, promising everything will be better soon and their heart will mend. This is everything a fix-it fic should be: this is the real ending of that movie for me, Jack and Ennis living out their lives with their own ranch in Vermont, and everything’s not perfect, but they’re together and alive and their love is strong.
Content warnings: N/A
“In all your wanderings” by MirandaTam. 16K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Star Wars Prequels; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Shadaras
Backstory: What if Shmi was Force-sensitive too? What if Qui-Gon brought Shmi before the Jedi Council alongside her son? What would happen then?
Rec: Shmi is sensible and strong-willed and stands her own against the entirety of the Jedi Order. She starts asking questions, doesn’t stop, and makes sure that Anakin remembers that it’s alright to have emotions.
Content warning: Discussions of slavery
“Deprogramming” by Bohemienne. 53K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Captain America/MCU; Ships: Steve/Bucky, past Bucky/Natasha
Recced by: Kat
Backstory: Steve is the Marvel golden boy, the embodiment of truth and justice, and Bucky is the dark shadow of the same system that created Steve. Too good to resist.
Rec: It feels like a real canonical post-Civil War story that honestly and thoroughly deals with Bucky’s trauma and recovery while still giving us satisfying Stucky feels.
Content warnings: Some violence and torture, and I think there’s a muted reference that Bucky might have been sexually abused by Hydra
“Strays” verse by NancyBrown. 93K words over 8 stories, rated a mix of Gen, Mature, and Explicit.
Fandom: Torchwood; Ships: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/OMC, Ianto/Amy Pond, Martha/Mickey
Recced by: Elizabeth (the co-editor of this newsletter :-))
Backstory: *SPOILER* Torchwood s3 famously ends with the deaths of Ianto, one half of the juggernaut ship of this fandom, and Jack’s grandson. (It’s been quite a while now, I feel fine telling you this.) Ianto’s death laid the groundwork for *a lot* of great fix-it fic, and this one has one of my favorite resurrection plotlines—what if you come back from the dead and no one can tell it’s you?
Rec: So here’s how I feel about fix-its: I love love love resurrection storylines but I ESPECIALLY love the emotional fallout afterwards—I get frustrated when the story ends just as the characters are reunited. A lot of NancyBrown’s fix-its do this beautifully, but especially this one. As always, her stories are well-plotted and paced, and she gives both minor and major characters the emotional space and complexity the show never afforded them.
Content warnings: References to canonical character death, depression, violence
One more thing: if you’re interested in Torchwood fic AND love long arcs, NancyBrown is the literal best. There’s a really engrossing alternate third season, the poly “Rabbit Hole” AU verse, and my favorite ever, already recced in this newsletter many months ago, the Intersections verse.
FINAL THOUGHT
ATTENTION PEOPLE WHO LOVE SURVEYS: Fansplaining (a podcast produced by just ONE HALF of this newsletter; the other half co-hosts “Overinvested”) is currently running a survey about the definition of fanfiction that many respondents have reported is a good and thought-provoking time. Please take it! — Elizabeth
FINAL FINAL THOUGHT
Re-upping our request from last week: if you have any tween-friendly (no explicit violence or sex) recs for Hermione/Draco (Harry Potter), Lapidot (Steven Universe), or Lucas/Maya (Girl Meets World), please send them our way to help a reader out! And as always, please send any favorite recs our way, including fanvids, and drop us an email if you’d like to do a list and/or explainer!
If you liked this, please share it with your friends! https://thereccenter.substack.com/. And find us on social media: Gav (twitter/tumblr) & Elizabeth (twitter/tumblr)